Kids Really Aren't Overscheduled

Published in 8/20/2006

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Professor Suniya S. Luthar

A group of leading child development experts is challenging the popular notion that kids engage in too many organized activities, and that the pressures of overscheduling are leading to substance abuse and other developmental problems. Another child development researcher says that among affluent youth especially, the overscheduling of parents may be the bigger threat to child development.

"Perhaps more so than the children, it is the parents who are overextended, with ongoing conflicts regarding their life roles," writes Suniya S. Luthar, Ph.D., of Columbia University Teachers College.

Luthar's research suggests affluent, highly educated, overextended moms are under tremendous pressure to do it all. She says most women who balance motherhood and high-stress careers end up frustrated. "We shouldn't have to choose between our children and our careers, but that is a choice that society forces us to make," she says.

This article, written by Salynn Boyles, appeared in the August 14th, 2006 publication of WebMd.previous page